Spring Drink Recipes

Fresh Herbs, Flowers, Sunshine! Spring favorites come together with refreshing homemade drinks. 

Here are a few of our favorite basic recipes:

Homemade Sweet tea:

    Ingredients:

• Water
• Tea bags with homegrown or store bought tea to taste (4-6 bags)
• Sugar to taste (about one cup) 
• Ice (optional to add in your glass, do not put ice in the brew)

    What you will need:

• A jar to contain the mixture
• A spoon to stir the mixture
• A glass to pour the mixture into and drink from 

    Place all ingredients except for the ice into your jar. Set in sun. Wait a few hours. Stir. Pour the mixture into a glass (optionally with ice). Enjoy!

Kombucha:

    Ingredients:

• Tea (1 gallon) -See Homemade Sweet Tea recipe for tea with sugar
• Sugar (1 cup)
• SCOBY
• Additional Herbs or Fruit pieces (to taste) optional after the first fermentation

    What you will need:

• A glass Jar
• Cheese cloth or paper towels
• A rubber band 
• A spoon
• A glass

"A SCOBY, which stands for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast,” is an ingredient used in the fermentation and production of kombucha." -https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/kombucha-scoby

    Have a space set up that is dark, warm (70 degrees) and isolated to store your mixture. Combine Tea and Sugar or Sweet Tea with your SCOBY in your glass container of choice. Let sit in dark isolated area for 1-4 weeks. Secondary fermentation for flavor and carbonation. Pour into glass. Enjoy!

Mint Julep:

    Ingredients:

• Mint leaves (4-6)
• Sugar (2 tsp. or to taste) or Simple Syrup (to taste)
• Bourbon Whiskey (2 ounce)
• Ice

    What you will need:

• A glass
• A muddler
• A spoon
• A glass

    Place most of your mint in your glass. Add sugar. Muddle the mint and sugar mixture. Fill glass with ice. Pour bourbon whiskey over the ice. Use a sprig of your mint to garnish. Enjoy!

Homemade Lemonade:

    Ingredients:

• Lemons (A dozen) or Lemon Juice (1 cup)
• Sugar (1 cup or to taste)
• Water (1 gallon)
• Ice (to taste)
• Fruit (Optional for flavor varieties)

    What you will need:

• A jug/jar/pitcher for your mixture
• A knife and a juicer if you\"re using fresh lemons
• A spoon
• A glass

    Prepare your choice of Lemon. Add lemon juice to your container of choice. Add Sugar. Add water. Mix with spoon. Pour in glass with/without ice. Adding slices of lemons, strawberries or blueberries if you would like. Enjoy!

 New York (Sweet and) Sour:

    Ingredients:

• Bourbon Whiskey (2 ounce)
• Homemade Lemonade
• Red wine (1/2 ounce)
• Ice

    What you will need:

• A glass
• A spoon
• A shaker (optional)

    Traditionally a New York Sour would include egg whites, lemon juice, sugar and whiskey mixed in a shaker and poured over ice, with Dry red wine floating at the top of the drink. I prefer a sweeter drink. Mix and match ingredients to your own taste.    

    Pour Bourbon Whiskey into glass. Add Homemade Lemonade. Add ice. Stir. Use spoon upside down to pour the wine gently over drink to float. Enjoy!

Lilac Cordial:

    Ingredients:

• Lilac Flowers
• Water (4 cups)
• Sugar (4 cups)
• Lemon juice (1 tsp) or citric acid to taste
• Blueberries (1 cup optional for color)

    What you will need:

• Container for mixture, Mason Jars
• A large pot (for boiling) 
• A mesh strainer/mesh sleeve
• A spoon
• A glass 

    Rinse off clean, pesticide free, petals from Lilac flowers. Combine water and sugar in a large pot. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, while stirring mixture with a spoon intermittently. Let cool slightly not to crack glass jars. Add in Lemon juice and Pour mixture over lilac flowers (add blueberries for color optionally), in your Mason jars or containers of choice. Seal for a week, shaking once a day. Strain flowers out of mixture at end of that week using mesh strainer/sleeve. Store in clean sealed jars or freeze. 

    Add mixture to water or various drinks for flavor. Enjoy!  

Drink responsibly and legally at your own risk!

All DIY projects shown on www.LittleLakeviewConservatory.com are purely "at your own risk". As with any DIY project, unfamiliarity with the tools and process can be dangerous. Posts should be construed as theoretical advice only. 

If you are at all uncomfortable or inexperienced working on these projects (especially but not limited to electronics and mechanical), please reconsider doing the job yourself. It is very possible on any DIY project to damage your cottage, void your property insurance, create a hazardous condition or harm or even kill yourself or others.

Little Lakeview Conservatory LLC will not be held responsible for any injury due to any featured DIY project.

Little Lakeview Conservatory, LLC

Little Lakeview Conservatory, LLC was est. in 2019 to provide sustainable plants in NH and to share information to help people create self sustainability in their own homes.

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